Residents of a city in the north-west of India have
called for government action as temperatures reached 51C (123.8F), the highest
the country has experienced since records began.

Phalodi, in the desert state of Rajasthan, is
suffering an unprecedented medical crisis as a result of the record
temperatures, which are high even by local summer standards and which smashed
the previous record, set in 1956, of 50.6C.

“Thursday was the hottest temperature ever recorded in
the country: 51C in Phalodi,” BP Yadav, a director of India’s meteorological
department, said on Friday.

In Phalodi, where the temperature can fall below zero
in winter and reach extreme peaks in the summer, the local government hospital
has seen patient numbers double in the last few days as people report more
heat-related illnesses.

Shiv Prakash Chanda, who works as a nursing officer in
the hospital, said: “It is incredibly hot. None of the air-conditioners or
coolers is working. We have running water, but the water is stored in tanks on
top the buildings, and when it comes out of the tap the water is so hot that
you can’t even wash your hands with it. You can’t even go to the toilet.”

Ranjeet Singh, a local police constable, said: “The
ground is so hot, you could cook chapatis on it.”

One man from the town died from heatstroke on Friday
at a nearby railway station. Chanda said the heat was so extreme that the
hospital was struggling to meet demand from patients. Children are particularly
vulnerable to sunstroke, and the hospital has seen a rise in the number of
cases of diarrhoea and vomiting.

“The government needs to do something – they need to
put up tents and offer cold water in places like railway stations where people
gather. The local administration has done nothing so far,” Chanda said. Last
year, more than 1,500 people died in India because of heat wave.

Chanda has written a letter to the chief minister of
the state urging the government to delay a national polio vaccination programme
because of the temperature. “Going door to door in this heat can be fatal,” he
said. “The vaccines may be spoiled. Plus we need more people in the hospital
here because so many people are coming in.”

The heat has disrupted the regular working day in
Phalodi, where people say they are afraid to leave their homes. Residents start
work at sunrise and come home at about 10am to protect themselves from the
midday sun, before returning to work in the evenings.

However, the heat wave’s worst effects are not being
felt as badly in the city – where residents know how to cope with the hot
weather – as in the surrounding rural areas, where there is no infrastructure
to protect people from the sun.

In a nearby village called Pratapgarh, Chanulal said
the heat had devastated this year’s harvest. “The trees and saplings have all
dried up,” he said. “We can’t even leave our homes. I am an old man, and I
can’t do anything. I eat whatever my children bring home.”

There is no electricity in Pratapgarh and villagers
have to walk miles to get drinking water. “There are no fridges or coolers
here,” said Chanulal. “Only the wind – that’s your cooler.”

For the last few weeks, severe heat wave has swept
across India, and temperatures are expected to stay high in June. A devastating
drought, which has left many villages and towns without a regular water supply
is adding to the effects of the heat.

Schools have had to close down, and some hospitals
have stopped performing surgeries. In some regions, cooking in the daytime has
been banned because of the risk of starting fires.

Across the border, Pakistan is increasing its hospital
capacity, digging more graves and consulting clerics about religious fasting
guidelines as it, too, braces for another possible deadly heat wave.